Factors affecting the intervention to increase the biosecurity levels of poultry production clusters (PPCs) in Thailand

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors affecting the intervention to increase the biosecurity levels of poultry farms in Nong Khai province, Thailand. Research participants were 80 farms from three districts. The research was conducted from July to October, 2013. Before, during, and after the interventions, we studied the results of the two parts: The first part involves the factors affecting changes in farmers’ behavior to improve the biosecurity levels, the second involves the biosecurity levels as well as morbidity and mortality number of chickens both before and after the interventions. The results showed that factors contributing to the success of the interventions to enable farmers make improvements to increase the biosecurity levels in their poultry farms were education, locations of the poultry production clusters and network, leaders of the clusters, gender, performance of government officials, poultry diseases and epidemics on farms, and combine works between the researcher, government officials and farmers. Moreover, it was found that after the interventions, there was a statistically significant increase (P<0.05) in the biosecurity levels of poultry farms in Nong Khai province. At the same time, when biosecurity increased, the morbidity and mortality number of chickens in poultry farms decreased significantly (P<0.05). This phenomenon indicated that many combine factors affect the success of intervention for improving biosecurity level in poultry farms and biosecurity levels affected to morbidity and mortality number of chickens in poultry farms.